Symbolic Ethnicity

Use of the Term

The concept of symbolic ethnicity, but not the term itself, represents a development of Gans's analysis of the past, present, and future of U.S. Jewry in the 1956 volume of Commentary. Subsequently, symbolic ethnicity has been used in analyses of other ethnic groups in the United States, including Armenians, Finns, Italians, Louisianan Cajuns, and Jews. More generally, Mary C. Waters used the idea in her discussion of the choice of ethnicity among Roman Catholics in the United States. Interestingly, despite its origin, the concept of symbolic ethnicity also appears in analyses of multiculturalism in Canada by Lance W. Roberts and Rodney A. Clifton, of Danish Jewry after World War II by Andrew Buckser, and of Mexican Americans by Thomas Macias.

Defining Characteristics of Symbolic Ethnicity

Symbolic ethnicity entails feeling or being identified with a particular ethnicity, but it does not necessarily entail either practicing an ongoing ethnic culture or participating in an existing organization, formal or informal, of fellow ethnics. The symbolic ethnic may feel part of or identify with a collectivity that is either real and contemporary or mythic or historical.

Moreover, symbolic ethnicity is voluntary rather than ascribed, situationally relevant rather than pervasive, and idiosyncratic rather than socially or consen-sually defined. Symbolic ethnicity does not necessarily influence the choice of friends, mates, or neighbors. Furthermore, symbolic ethnicity is constructed so that it does not interfere with integration into the economic, political, and social life of the United States. Thus, it is compatible with a middle-class lifestyle.

Nevertheless, people may use symbolic ethnicity to differentiate themselves from others in what they see as an overly homogenized society or culture. In short, symbolic ethnicity enables a person to be essentially, but not exactly, like every other U.S. citizen. However, some have suggested that the rise of symbolic ethnicity among descendants of European immigrants is an aspect of identity politics, that is, a way of asserting their whiteness as a type of European American rather than as an African or Hispanic American.

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